By Arpita Sharma, MPP/MPL 2017

California State University, Long Beach hosted three METRANS Research Seminars to engage students in discussions about transportation issues this fall. Two of the research seminars focused on tracking truck movements in and out of the marine terminal and better technology to get information on how long it takes trucks to get through the ports. The last seminar focused on noise pollution at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles. The seminars provided METRANS Transportation Center an opportunity to share innovative research tied to operations with students at the university. 

The first research seminar titled, “Noise Mapping of Container Terminals at Ports of Long Beach & Los Angeles,” was held in the afternoon on Saturday, October 24 and was followed by a reception in the College of Business Administration Courtyard. Dr. I-Hung Khoo, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Dr. Tang-Hung Nguyen, Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Management led the discussion on how the two ports utilize the noise mapping approach to provide a geographical view of the noise distribution in and around the port areas and to assess the noise impact on the surrounding community and identify key noise sources. Fifteen students attended the event, and were engaged in learning about the mapping technique.

Dr. Burkhard Englert, Chair of the Computer Science Department at CSULB, led the second Research Seminar on Thursday, November 5th, titled “Tracking Truck Movements at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.” at the beginning of the Global Logistics Specialist Certificate Program class. He discussed how mobile applications can be used to obtain information about the location of trucks, determine truck turnaround times, and optimize their movement. Twenty-seven students attended the event, learning insightful information about the new technology available. 

The last research seminar, “Tracking Truck Flows with Programmable mobile Devices for Drayage Efficiency Analysis,” was held on Thursday, November 14th, also followed by a reception in the courtyard. Dr. Shui Lam, Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science discussed how understanding of truck flow inefficiencies and freight flows patterns can provides useful data for the trucking industry to devise strategies for productivity improvement, and help stakeholders in supply chain management. The event was co-sponsored by the Center for International Trade and Transportation at CSULB. Fifteen students also attended the seminar, gaining insight into the types of data available. 

Arpita Sharma

Arpita Sharma is a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School. She is interested in issues of health inequities, sustainable land use development and active transportation. She expects to complete her degrees in May 2017. She can be reached at arpitasharma.net or at [email protected].